TIJUANA  A suspected drug trafficker connected to numerous killings and kidnappings was in custody today following his arrest late Friday in Tijuana, U.S. and Mexican officials confirmed.

Juan Francisco Sillas Rocha is a former top lieutenant in the once-powerful Arellano Felix drug trafficking organization that dominated trafficking through in Baja California. Following the arrests and killings of many of its leaders, the group has been largely supplanted by the Sinaloa cartel.

Sillas was wanted by authorities on both sides of the border. A brother, Jorge Ernesto Sillas Rocha, was detained in February by California Department of Justice agents in a murder-for-hire plot linked to the Arellano Felix. Sillas was also charged in that case.

A source with Baja California State Preventive Police said that Sillas was arrested Friday by Tijuana municipal police officers, but they did not initially know his identity. The operation eventually involved the Mexican military as well as federal and state law enforcement agencies known collectively as the Grupo de Coordinación Tijuana he said.